The People's Champion
by Lord Fistbeard
Summary: TwitchPlaysPokemon fanfic. Someone had to do it! Red volunteered to take the thousands of voices of people unable to compete in the elitist world of Pokemon into himself, so they would have a chance to enter that world.
1. Chapter 1

I don't know what I had been thinking, volunteering for this. They had told me it would be a revolution, a champion of the common man to enter into the elite world of Pokemon. They told me I would be a legend, an unbeatable fighter, the first peasant to rise to the ranks of the Elite Four in a century. They told me I would be the bridge, the connector to a world that the average person hadn't been a part of in generations. They told me I would bring Pokemon back to the world.

They glossed over that it would be "we" that did this, not "I". And "we" was fifty thousand people.

The voices were so loud, overpowering my own thoughts and drowning them in a sea of commands.

"RUN TO THE GRASS!"

"GO!"

"GET TO THE POKEMON CENTER!"

"NAME YOUR POKEMON!"

"GO!"

"GO!"

I tried to close my mind to the deafening roar of signals, coming through the specially-installed device in my brain. Anyone near a computer could send their input to the situation to me, anytime. A true People's Champion.

I looked down at my twitching hands. Around my wrist was the metal band they said would allow me to mentally control Pokemon, as long as I had trapped them in a specially coded Pokeball. It had cost more money than any single person in Pallet Town could ever hope to raise in a lifetime, but between all of them they had managed to purchase two. After codename "Gary" ran off with the other one without waiting to be hooked up to the city, I was the last chance any of these people had to join into this world and experience it for themselves.

That thought strengthened me, and helped me shield my mind from all the shouting voices. I had to do this, I had to be successful. My success was my city's success, a victory for everyone I had ever known. I would do this, I would become the champion they needed. The road would be long and hard, but I would triumph.

I took a deep breath and raised my foot for the first step on the road to the Elite Four, and glory.

My foot swung itself backwards into my back and I slammed face-first onto the laboratory tiles. Out of my pocket, the Pokedex I had been given fell out, and started spouting off facts about Bulbasaur.

This would be a long journey.


	2. Chapter 2

I stretched out my hand for the thousandth time, trying to ease the jerking, twitching motion out of my movements. It extended outwards, and then trembled terribly as some of the voices asked me to move it to the right, or left, or grab the pokedex and read up on the world (for the thousandth time). But, the few were drowned out by the many, and my hand stayed on track.

It was taking a lot of getting used to, but I was confident that I could manage it, in time. Slowly, one step at a time, I eased my way to the edge of the city, where the Pokemon hid. They didn't bother the average person, but the armband and pokeballs seemed to attract them like flies to honey. I could see them, the slight rustling of the grass that could hide any number of vicious creatures… I shuddered and tried to tighten the grip on the pokeball I was told contained a very rare Pokemon that had been being studied at the lab. However, the voices had other ideas for my hand, and began to move towards the Pokedex, my pockets, anything they could think of.

Finally all of us came to agreement, and we stepped the last few feet towards the confines of town. My leg was almost in the air when I heard the cold voice beside me.

"Well, Red, so you made it out of the city at last. Only took you what, six hours?"

I remembered the drawling, arrogant voice from training. Gary, the other test subject, who had run off without receiving the hookup to the rest of our world.

I turned on my heel so abruptly I almost fell over, my head cocked to one side as I surveyed him. He leaned lazily against a tree to my right, tossing a Pokeball up and down in his hand while grinning at me. There was no twitching in his smooth movements, no voices shouting obscenities in his ears…

"Looks like I was right to get out of that experiment when I could," he said, watching me as I staggered slightly over, got halfway through shouting at him before my mouth closed on my tongue, the hand with the pokeball doing something between a rude gesture and itching my nose. "It wouldn't help to be the Pokemon champion if you turn into a drooling vegetable in the process!"

I took a deep breath and took control of my own mouth with difficulty. "We work together. We have thousands of people to help out whenever we need it. You have no one."

The effect of my words was somewhat ruined by my feet going in opposite directions, spilling me onto the ground.

He paused in tossing his pokeball and surveyed me on the ground, a cold smile on his face that didn't reach his eyes.

"I have no one, do I?" he said quietly, pushing himself smoothly off the tree to tower over me. "Maybe I have no friends, but I do not need them. Not when I have _servants."_

He pressed a button on the pokeball and dropped it to his feet. It opened and a stream of bright lights filled the air around the spot for a few seconds, condensing slowly into a creature.

"Maybe I don't have nice little voices in my head, giving bad advice and lies," he hissed, as the shape formed itself into a large turtle, standing on two powerful legs. It had the same cold eyes as its master. "Maybe I don't have the blessing of Pallet Town, for all that's worth. But the will of this Pokemon is mine."

On an unseen command, the large turtle began moving forwards towards my prone body, growling as low as a wolfhound.

"And soon, I will have yours."

"RUN!"  
The voices in my head shouted in unison, so loud they drowned out the sound of the world around me. I tried to stagger to my feet, but my legs wouldn't stay still long enough to support my weight. I collapsed again, and watched between blades of grass as the turtle moved far faster than any turtle had a right to move, roaring soundlessly as it pounded through the grass towards me.

"RUN!"

I couldn't think, I couldn't hear, I could barely breathe. The voices were too strong…

"RUN!"

"RUN!"

"RUN!"

"RUN!"

And there, amidst the storm of screams of terror and fear, the sound of the dream of Pokemon Champion collapsing around me, I heard one more voice join into the chorus in my mind, brighter than any of the others around it.

"**FIGHT!**"

And the sound returned to the world, the voices fell to the backdrop, the world cleared immediately. And I realized that the voice had been my own.


	3. Chapter 3

_ And there, amidst the storm of screams of terror and fear, the sound of the dream of Pokemon Champion collapsing around me, I heard one more voice join into the chorus in my mind, brighter than any of the others around it._

_ "__**FIGHT!**__"_

_ And the sound returned to the world, the voices fell to the backdrop, the world cleared immediately. And I realized that the voice had been my own._

I raised back the fist that clenched my only Pokeball and…punched a very surprised turtle in the face.

Gary blinked.

The turtle gave a squeal several octaves higher than its growl and leapt backwards as lights began shooting from underneath my bruised knuckles. The voices in my head went back to shouting opposite commands and I dropped the Pokeball on the ground as I sat bolt upright and pulled out my Pokedex. And as the light coalesced in front of me, the Pokedex in my hands spoke in a calm, quiet voice.

"Charmander," it spoke into the silence. "Lizard Pokemon. From the time it is born, a flame burns at the tip of its tail. Its life would end if the flame was to go out."

It didn't look like it was going to go out any time soon. Charmander was a huge lizard, standing on two powerful legs and whipping its tail back and forth behind it, drawing a huge crescent of fire into the air. Its teeth were blackened embers, its nostrils spilling smoke into the air, and its eyes were a strong, sky blue.

But when it looked at me, its eyes widened, pupils expanding to fill the whole sockets. I remembered Professor Oak telling me that it was controlled by mental commands. _Oh god…_

It gave something between a roar and a laugh, falling to the ground and spinning in circles, its tail setting fire to a nearby bush as it flailed. It saw what the Pokedex told me was Squirtle and pushed itself off the ground with its powerful tail, nearly flying the three feet that separated them. It landed with a thud and began swinging wildly with its claws, scratching anything it could reach as its tail frantically smashed against its shell. Then, as quickly as it had entered the fight, it sprung away and sprinted full speed behind me, cowering behind me as its tail shrunk down to the faintest of embers.

_What have I done?_

Squirtle stood up and took a few shaky steps towards Charmander, but then thought better of it. It walked unsteadily over to its own Pokeball on the ground and poked it a few times with its nose, looking up at Gary hopefully.

Gary opened his mouth, but no sounds came out, and he soon closed it again. Finally, he reached down and pressed the button on his Pokeball, and the Squirtle dissolved into a million tiny specks of light, which flew inside the Pokeball and vanished from view. He bent down to the scorched grass and picked it up, still looking dazed.

Then, with a shout of frustration, he threw the Pokeball at a tree, and turned to me.

"You...you… FREAK," he screamed, spittle flying from his face. "You think this is over? While you're out drooling over yourself with your stupid little fire lizard, I will win! I will be the BEST!" The word echoed around the clearing, filling the forest with his frustration. He took a few deep breaths, and finally spoke just barely above a whisper.

"And then, I will come find you. And I will make sure you know just how outclassed you are, you and that backwater town I will _never_ go back to. And you will regret this."  
He spat at the Charmander, then stomped off into the forest, picking up the Pokeball without looking down at it and stuffing it forcefully into a side pocket, vanishing from view among a trail of broken branches and kicked-up leaves.


End file.
